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Saturday, January 8, 2011

Studio Saturday - Humblebeads' Crazy Dreams

Welcome to Studio Saturday! Each week one of our contributors gives you a sneak peek into their studio, creative process or inspirations. We ask a related question of our readers and hope you'll leave comments! As an incentive we offer a free prize each week to bribe you to use that keyboard. The following week we choose a random winner.

Congratulations! Please email Shannon your address so she can ship that off to you.

It's the start of the New Year and that has me thinking about goals and all sorts of business type stuff. I'm also thinking about my creative space and more importantly a reduction of said creative space. We in a transition here at the Humble Home and that includes me switching my studio into a smaller room. And this has me thinking about working from home and the future of my business.

It started with Jennifer sharing her new studio space and then Kerry was sharing her beautiful space and a little seed of an idea was born. I want a real studio space.﻿

Well, more specifically I want a studio space/gallery where I can create, sell beads and jewelry and teach classes. Would a space that sells just my beads fly? I don't know? Are there other bead galleries out there that are making it?

I would love one day to have a little shop that sell art beads from artists around the world, an Art Bead Scene store. But that would be many years in the making. And I'm talking about this year, right now. Can I do this? Is this a crazy dream? I like dreaming. I like making my dreams come true even more.

So universe please listen and put things into motion so that when the time is right this space will be ready for me. Thank you.

On a side note I started a new Flickr group to share photos of our bead tables each Wednesday. You can read the details here. Make plans to join me this week!

So tell me, what crazy, outrageous, pie-in-the-sky type of a dream do you have for 2011. Be brave and share it with me! You never know. One lucky commenter will receive a teal bird to sing in the new year.

Hi Heather, I like your studio, the big window looks like it would give you lots of natural sunlight, which I thrive on. I am still a newbie when making jewelry and that is my goal for this year is GROWTH, I want to grow my business. I recently resigned from my job after working in a professional setting for almost 20 years and now I want to focus on raising my kids but I want to feed my creative soul and making jewelry is it. So I am off to create a bigger readership on my blog hoping to pick up more jewelry designers and people like yourself who create beautiful beads and such, also getting people interested in what I am making so that I can start selling my wares. So my big dream is to start expanding my business and hopefully that will gain me some of my own income now that I am a SAHM hopefully I can turn that into WAHM.

Thanks for letting me share. I am hoping that putting out my dreams in the universe will too help them come true.

Heather, I have no doubt your ABS bead store would be a success, especially if you hold classes there, and sell your lovely jewelry and the artwork of other artists. Baby steps.....

My dream is to actually HAVE a studio. Right now it is our dining room table--no storage so the room is a mess. And I have to pick it all up for dinners and home shows. My oldest kids are at college, but still come home often and hibernate in their own rooms. There really are no other spaces to 'set up shop' of my own for now, but someday I will make it happen.

Other than that I would like to get one of my pieces in a magazine. Of course that means I need to get busy and create. I've been up to my elbows in 'after holiday' stuff for now.

I think that once the seeds of a dream are planted, both the excitement and fear seem to propel us forward. After being laid off last year, I just knew I had to pursue my love...creating some great art and jewelry. Much to my surprise and delight, people were crowding around my jewelry booth at shows, and my first entry in an area art show gave me the honor of being chosen as 1 of 15 artists to participate in a private local museum showing. Who would have though this only a year ago? You just don't know until you try. And Heather, I think your Art Bead Scene store is so doable-I would die for a store like yours in my area! I have no doubt you will follow through and prosper!

So given the unexpected success I had last year, my challenge for 2011 is to find my way-no kidding! I'm saying, "Now what do I do?". To help me along, I'm enlisting the sage advice of people who have been there...communicating with different artists and entrepeneurs, curious about how they juggle the business and artistic sides. I have to stop procrastinating and draw my line in the proverbial sand. "Man-up", so they say (or woman-up in my case).

Pie in the sky... I think this year is just work/life balance. Starting my own business is an all-consuming task. Finding time to market/network/create while still maintining order in the house is quite the challenge! Best of luck to your business this year Heather! (and I think an Art Bead Scene store is a fabulous idea!)

Nice post, Heather. Enjoyed seeing - with much envy- your studio and a few others, everything seems bigger than my space, but I'm grateful for it anyway :) My dream is not new, the same old -get organized/reduce clutter of all kinds. But this will ultimately lead to unknown dreams that are inspired by the breathing space! I like the little birdie!!

I love all the light in your studio. I hope your new space will have as much. My dream is to make a sale in my Etsy shop. I am listing daily now and I believe it will happen. I am just getting tired of waiting!Thanks for the opportunity to win a bead!

Hi Heather,I believe dreaming is the most important thing we can do- especially when we do it with our eyes wide open and our brains awake!! I really hope that your dream will come true because you have so much to offer. It should be shared and in a place and way that helps you to be the most efficient and productive artist you can be. My dream has been the same for quite awhile. Life just keeps kind of getting in the way expecially the financial part of it. I want to be part of an artist co-op a fairly large group of diverse artists. We would each have studio space and exhibit space in a huge warehouse type building. Take turns working to greet visitors and customers and process sales so that everyone shares the work load. There will be great lighting, concrete easy care floors, lots of sinks and space for kilns, washing machines, dryers, equipment we all need to do our art. We will all share the cost of rent and utilities so we can actually make a living doing what we love. And someone will run a small Cafe and Coffee and Tea Shop inside the building so we don't have to leave to be nourished. Yup, it is a dream but my eyes are wide open and there is a realtor in our art quilt group who is looking for a space and requesting our input at this month's meeting , maybe this will somehow work out in the near future.

My dream for 2011 is to get one of my pieces published - this means actually submitting pieces, rather than designing them in my head. I have vowed to make one new piece a month (I am not looking to sell my work) any more would be gravy.

My goals are to finally stock anc get my etsy store up and running, to teach in our new bead store as well as in my home studio and to completely change the direction of my work through the growth of my skills. Not too much pressure huh? :)

I loved this post. I would love to have a studio. I own my own salon, it is in a small space about 550sqft around the back of another building. I often think that it would make a great studios space to make beads, sell beads and hold classes. Someday... For 2011 I am working on building my etsy store and my blog. Getting published and getting my pieces into a brick and mortar store (not just my salon).Shannon C

My main dream for 2011 is to get my studio completely set up. I have the room allocated but getting it ready to actually work in is taking a long time. I've got some other dreams, but that's the main one.

Hi Heather,First of all, let me say your work is unique and wonderful. You are very creative and have a style all of your own. We all must have pie-in-the-sky dreams/hopes if we are creative artists. That burning fire within us may burn brightly one day, and dim the next, but we must keep a positive attitude and search for bigger and better ways to show the world that creativity within us. As artists we need to step out of our comfortable box, and take a chance on things. There is no time like the present. I, too, am struggling to find exactly where I am headed with my jewelry designs. My pie-in-the-sky dream for 2011 is to find where I fit in, and sell my jewelry designs. Your work is an inspiration to me, and others who need your works of art to design unique, beautiful jewelry. Best wishes to you in 2011.Chris

Well, my RESOLUTION for this year is to send my work to a few jewellery magazines. My HOPE of course to be accepted. My PLAN is to produce more. But my WISH, my DREAM, would have to be to be able to go to the US and visit some great bead event, and also to go and see some of my american friends in the beading community. I think I need to sell a lot of jewellery and start to save up for that journey. I've never been to the US before so it would be so awesome in many ways. But I think it is not likely to happen within this year, unless a miracle happens and I would come into a lot of money suddenly. I do wanna go with my family, so t would be rather costly. But anyway, just to start to look into how I would like to distribute my stay is a first step to making it come through. So I will start there. It is great to travel with the help of a atlas.

An Art Bead Scene shop would be pure awesome-ness! My goals include building up my blog readership and increasing sales in my ArtFire shop.For the shop end of things, I am trying to learn more about SEO (makes my head hurt) and also to build up my inventory so my work pops up more often in the searches. I also have a dream of getting a piece of jewelry published.Is that my name that I hear that little birdy singing?

The first step toward realizing your dream is to voice it out loud. Say it proud. Sing it from the rooftops. The Universe is listening.

That being said... I want to show my family that my dream to make my jewelry full time can come true. I need to show a heady profit for this to work. I am back to 4 days a week at work. I want to be at 1/2 time by the end of June. A lot of hard work is ahead of me. I want to create my line of jewelry that people will clamor for as well as sell as components to other jewelry artists because it would bring me great joy to see how others interpret my components in their creations. And I want to write a book. Actually a series of books. I have ideas but it will take some serious thought and effort to make that happen.

Oh, yeah. And I really REALLY want you to open that studio and shop so that I can come and take classes and get my art bead fix!

I want everyone here to realize their big dreams. These are dynamite, all of you!

Well, I really want to try to get some (or one) of my designs published in a magazine this year, so I guess my "pie in the sky" dream would be that I get published and become internationally famous! OK, maybe I'll settle for actually getting published.Your idea about a shop/studio sounds like a beautiful dream. Good luck & let us know when you open the doors!

I think your dream idea is great, Heather! I had an idea a few years back to utilize a defunct wood products factory in our town. It involved getting a grant to house multiple craft studios, with a big window into everyone's space so visitors could see in and your could arrange it so you could chat or just work and have folks learn what craftspeople really do. A key component would be an educated support person who would have price lists available and portfolios of all the craftspeople, so she/he could interact with the public and let everyone get on with their work. The main issue, so I'm told, with selling in your workspace is being interrupted by customers. Just some tips to help with the process! My goal for this year is to start doing some high-end shows and make my book idea a reality. Thanks for the opportunity to state it out loud! And thanks again for the Art Bead Scene-- I hope to participate more this year than last.